Bracing block



' 14,1 7 June 927 E. A. HERRICK E L 1,632,072

BRACING BLOCK original Filed March 21. 2

N w w I 1 & 3

N ATTORN mum! Patented June 14, 1927.

UNITED STATES A 1,632,072 PATENT OFFICE.

ERNEST A. HERBICK AND THOMAS LEONARD MACBEAN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

Jan-Aortic BLOCK.

Original application med March 21, 1925, Serial m. 17,208. Divided "September 14, 1925. Serial No. 56,153.

This application is a division of our earlier application, Serial No. 17,208 filed March 21, 1925for timber-ing or bracing systems.

The object of our invention is a new brac- 5 ing block for a new system of timbering or bracing the sides or banks of any excavation while keeping the timber ends square, in a manner that will protect the ground adjacent to the excavation against settlement and at the same time afl'ord sufficient head room to permit the use of a steam or power shovel, or other mechanical excavators for excavating and disposing of the materials required to be excavated. This and other objects are accomplished by our invention, one embodiment of which is hereinafter more particularly set forth.

For a more detailed description of our invention, reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof, in which Figure 1 shows a bracing block and adja cent timbers. V

Figure 2 shows another form of bracing block and adjacent timbers.

Figure 3 is a front elevation of the bracing block shown in Figure 1, together with a portion of a timber which supports it.

Figure 4 is a side elevation of the bracing block shown in Figure 3, the view being taken at right angles to the view shown in' Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a plan view of the bracing block shown in Figure 2, and

Figure 6 is a sectional view thereof, taken on the line 66 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Figure 7 is a front elevation of the diagonally disposed timber seat shown in Fig ure 2.

Throughout the various views of the drawings, similar reference characters designate similar parts.

The simplest form of bracing block is shown in Figures 2 and 7. This form of block is preferably made of a castin having a connecting web 12 at each side of which are seating webs 13 and 14. The web 13 is provided with an upper flange 15 which rests on a timber 2 and the Web 14 has a flange 16 which supports one end of a raker brace 9. To hold the bracing block 6 in place it is preferable to perforate the flange 15 and drive a nail 17 through this and this application filed perforation and also to provide ridges 18 which will take into the woodof the stringer 2. If desired, these ridges may be omitted; It will be noted that the seats of the two webs 13 and 14 are at an angle one to the other, according to the location of the bracing block, the lower ones having the larger angles. Of course, these bracing blocks are designed according to the positions which they occupy, all of which may be standardized according to the design of the timbering.

The other brace blocks 7 are more complicated in that they have to provide for a multitude of raker braces in each instance. Here there is the connecting web 19 corresponding to the web 12 which has been described above, and this vweb 19 is reinforced by laterally extending reinforcing webs 20. On three sidesthe web19 is bound by the seatings webs 21, 22, 23 and 24 which will now be described in detail. The web 21 is adapted to rest against the end of the spreader 10 and has a laterally extending perforated flange 25 to enable it to make a good fit. The web 22 sits against the bottom of a through brace 1 and has laterally extending, perforated cars 26 by means of which the bracing block 7 may be held on the bottom of a brace 1 by means of suitable. nails 27. The web 23 is provided with a laterally extending, perforated flange 28 which is adapted to support an end of a raker brace 9 and this raker brace may be secured in place by means of a nail 29 which passes through the perforations, as shown. The seat 24 is identical with the seat 23 except that it is placed at a different angle with regard .to the web 22 so that a raker brace 9 will seat firmly and securely against this web and another brace will seat against the web 23 and these braces will go to different levels to the corresponding blocks 6, as above described.

From time to time it is desirable that all slackness may be taken up in the bracing and the conventional way of doing this is to place wedges 30 which are driven in tight so as to take up any looseness. V

The use of bracing blocks, as above described, makes it possible to use the same timbers with square cut ends over and over again without mutilation and without injury so that they will last indefinitely and bracing they also permit the repeated use of a standardized construction.

It will be understood that the structure herein described may be varied without in any way departing from the scope of this invention as defined in the following claims.

Having thus described our invention, What We claim is:

1. A bracing block composed of a connecting Web, a timber receiving Web at one side of the connecting Web and two brace receiving webs at another side of the connecting Web, the two receiving Webs extend- 

